”So I understand the slight animosity and fear our dear people feel about Janus.” Once again, monotone Hunter returns in an elegant manner to placate the murmuring audience once again. ”However, I do deem it fit that we may applaud our semifinalists for a great show of combat. Their opponents were definitely not easy fights, so kudos to them as well.” Hunter was uncomfortable casting the fight alone, and it shows with the rather weak attempts at maintaining professionality for the fight. Or it might be the fact that Prim is currently grading his papers and giving him the deadliest of glares. ”Anyhow, our semifinalists are Malina, uh, whats-her-face, with a great display of elegant… casting? Versus Janus, the extremely mobile soldier!”

”Anyways, as a semifinal, we have a fancy shmancy thing where we combine the two environments for something cool!” A large holographic image of a lottery machine appears on all sides of the arena, with two spinners. The spinners spun so quickly, making it nearly impossible to make out the passing words. It ticked through the options slower and slower until it finally stopped on Ocean and Ocean. ”...Unfortunately both of them are ocean… That won’t stop us from making it cool though!”

On both sides of the arena, it would be quickly filled with water as the center of it stands a rather large pirate ship that seems to gently rock back and forth for now. A large wooden plank is extended to both Malina and Janus to quickly make their way onto the ship before it would begin to retract and the ship starts it’s “voyage”. ”The cool thing about this is that we’ve basically simulated an actual ship, complete with large amount of turbulence through out the fight! Start doing too much damage, and maybe it'll start sinking too!” Hunter tried his best to clue in on that feature of the arena.

(A coin flip has decided that Janus will get the first post. The arena size is identical to that of the 1v1 arena in the show, however, it features scaled down biomes to fit the size. Good luck, and may the best combatant win. To make the turbulence as easy and effective as possible, every other post with swap from gentle to extremely rocky, vis versa. It’ll start after the fourth combat post.)

The man seemed determined to shake loose any prefight jitters that could appear. Or had appeared. Whichever.

The Huntsman cocked an ear, listening to the announcements, barely audible in the entry tunnel.

Janus Rogo's face twisted into an irritated scowl at the mention of his name. Fear and animosity.

Can you blame them?, the question rose, unbidden.

He shook it off.

Killed a lotta people.

He shook that off, too.

Whole lotta innoc-

The mercenary's gauntleted fists bounced off his helmet. The sudden shock brought him back to here. To now. He channeled his focus into that.

Malina Nahualli. He'd heard several pronunciations of her last name, some sounded closer to accurate than the others.

He'd spent the past few hours getting to know her, at least as well as he could from broadcasts of her recent match and a bit of cursory investigation. A young Valish Huntress. Younger than him, at least. She lacked some of the hot-headed, or brash attributes a solid portion of her peers commonly demonstrated. Her fight against Siu was an excellent example of reasonable, cautious tactics- Ones Janus himself favored, even. She'd held back, prodding at her opponent, attempting to grasp their limitations and show... Well, not her own abilities, but a snippet of them. A misdirection, almost. She was clever, trying to put herself in the mind of her opponent. Impressive, though not unexpected.

Her weaponry had caught his eye, as well. Her ranged abilities were, at best, limited. The pins she'd fired from her tail would need a great deal of fortune to not just penetrate his aura, but the armor beneath it, as well. Her usage of Dust was the more direct, notable threat. Channeling its effects through her staff gave a surprising amount of control, of variety, of potential in her attacks. Shards, orbs, blasts. She'd demonstrated all of those in the opening moments of the fight and it was undoubted that she could produce more variance, as well. The staff, though he hadn't seen all the forms, seemed to lack any dedicated projectile mode. It was an effective channel, sure, and a promising weapon in-close, but definitely not insurmountable.

The tail, he ruminated, was interesting. It showed up in most of the images of her from the old Beacon Academy yearbooks and she demonstrated a particular adeptness with its use. She was comfortable with it. It was as much a part of her as... Well, as any Huntsman's weapon. He spun his rifle, converting it to its spear form, barely conscious of the act. An extension of her body, of her soul. Her Aura would protect it, he had to assume, or it wouldn't be seeing use on this stage. Still, it was an angle, a vector for attack, one that he had to be prepared for, and one he'd seen before. Somewhat.

Her semblance had been noteworthy, too, though for a different reason than expected. The similarities between the two were what had caught Janus' eye. Any Huntsman worth their salt could evaluate an opponent and their Semblance, their Aura, but in this case, the similarities gave a touch of insight that others might miss. His semblance, dubbed Thrust[/b] many, many years ago, allowed for a constant blast of pressure in most directions. A jet of concentrated air, a steady stream of wind, or a heavy rush of force. He grinned as the memory floated up, his old team discussing the more accurate name for his semblance. Whoosh or NYOOOM[/b] had gotten a fair few laughs.

The spear bounced off his thigh. Still bouncing. It'd been spinning idly in his hand, though he'd yet to notice until that faint -tink- of metal on metal.

FOCUS

Her semblance was an apparently more limited version of his own. Perhaps it was constrained by her relative inexperience. Perhaps it was a hardwired limitation. Or perhaps it was just an act, and her abilities weren't what they seemed? That last one seemed unlikely, slotting in the rear of his mind, while he evaluated what little he'd seen. Concentrated bursts of force, the bursts being key. Unlike his own Semblance, it wasn't a constant stream, it was a fast moving burst of force. The applications were similar, too, seeing her use it to maneuver around the field, but it wasn't quite the tactical multitool of his.

She's skilled, he thought, but not invincible.

Her lack of range, the limited amounts of pressure she could apply to him, would cripple her. It wasn't much different than with Budonoki, in his mind. Keep distance, wear down with the Tyrant, attempt to avoid close combat. If he could keep her off-balance through the match, it would be simple enough, barring any unforeseen complications....

A buzzer in the room rang. A light illuminated. The match was set to begin. Almost immediately, the soldier stepped off, confidently advancing down the entry ramp. There were cheers, a dull, faint roar. Certainly quieter than that for other matches, though. There was something else, too. Something softer, quieter, lying just beneath the crowd. A sea.

Disrespect was the norm here in Atlas, apparently. Malina could say she was surprised, she never had any special love for the kingdom or its higher classes. Or it's climate. Or military. Or relationship with her home. Or-

Malina blinked quickly trying to clear her vision after stepping foot into the brightly lit arena. Couldn't afford to get trapped in her one head here. She looked down at the rickety looking wooden pier that lead to the ship in the middle and the deep blue water below. that would be an issue. She mentally groaned as she gripped her weapon from its holster and extended it to its maximum length.

She needed to focus on the biggest threat. Janus Rogo.

She wasn't an expert in the field of disgraced Atlesian specialists by any means, she'd never really had any reason to actually look into the subject, but she still knew of Rogo. Most huntsmen her age did, she thought. She was in her second year when the story broke, an Atlesian specialist sinking a boat full of faunus refugees. It had been shocking to her then but looking back, it wasn't all too surprising coming out of Atlas. If anything, what shocked her the most was the fact that the story had gotten out or that the faunus weren't accepted in and immediately put to work.

Regardless. She still only knew of him, basic facts and extrapolations. He used guns much more prevelantly than the average huntsman, he was quick, he used to be a specialist. That was maybe the most dangerous part. Malina wasn't an idiot, she knew what being a specialist came with. Military huntsmen that worked could work with squads under them and coordinate quick, surgical strikes against Grimm.

Against people.

So he was either a commander of a squad, in which case she needed to make sure she stayed on top of her preverbial shit, he was a member of a purely specialist squad which meant he was skilled enough to warremt extremely high profile missions or- maybe the most frustrating option- he operated solo. In which case, she was at a net disadvantage across the board. She'd have to play tricky.

The artifical wind pushed her hair across her eyes and she realized she was standing at the edge of the ship.

She hadn't even realized she'd been making her way across the pier. Looking back and down at the water, past the dark purple metal of manticore. If she fell in there it was basically game over unless she could pull something out of her ass. With that in mind, she gripped her staff tighter, her knuckles going white from tension. Kinetic dust and ice dust, a wooden ship and.... An unknown amount of water beneath. A mostly unknown opponent who was more experience and covered range better than her.

She needed more. More information. She could try to poke and prod at him for more combat info and take some licks in the process or she could try rushing him and see how he reacts.

More time for planning. She could maybe stall the fight, hide below deck and let him come to her while she worked on something.

More options. She could make those. She needed to be close quarters for this, she couldn't afford otherwise.

Malina stepped off the plank and onto the gently rocking ship. She loosened her grip on Tecuanitlan so her knuckles weren't searing white but she kept her finger near the trigger. She wasn't stupid. She would wait here for her opponent to arrive on deck and then, like any good huntress, offer a sporting handshakes. Her fingers brushed against the pouch on her side. A gamble with a demon.

There was a sea. A massive ocean, stretching as far as the eye could see. Deep, black waves under a cold night sky. The horizon was distant, strangely invisible. The shattered moon hung in the sky, dully glimmering, though it wasn’t the only source of light.

There was a ship. It burned. It screamed.

Janus blinked. The change was nearly imperceptible. Almost as difficult to follow as what came next.

Before the announcements finished, before the plank had fully extended, before the match had truly began, he blurred into movement. The pair of metallic Knights behind him didn’t just crumple to the ground, either. As if hurled by some massive force, they’d been flung back, driving into the arena walls. The mercenary’s semblance was unrelated, all appearances to the contrary. The most perceptive in the stands could pick up his actions, though, anyone at home was out of luck. The spear had whirled, slamming into the two drones, catching them with a Herculean level of force. The tiled ground shattered as he left the entryway, sending a smattering of ceramic shards back down the hallway, embedding into the walls, ceilings, and floor.

He advanced. He aggressed. His Aura seemed to crackle, then bleed, as its hue darkened ever so slightly. He shot across the arena, impossibly fast. The plank splintered behind him, the firmly built deck strained from the pressure flowing over it. Over the collective gasps from the crowd, the staccato bursts of debris impacts, the loud roar from the vortex of his Semblance, a howl could be heard. Born of rage and anger and hate, the man, once a pinnacle of Atlesian might, of Huntsman skill, split the air with a keening roar. His foresight was gone. All his planning, gone. The restraint, the professionalism, gone. He didn't hear the soulless, mindless chatter from the Tyrant anymore. There was little more than a beast. A cyclone of fury, of chaos, of despair.

They want madness? Give it to them.

The spear flashed, a rapid blow from the bladed end slicing at the womans head.

They want war? GIVE THEM WAR!

His body was turning even as the initial blow closed, following up with another from below, a strike from the haft; a launcher, to send her skyward. The massive blast of thrust, aimed downward, splintered the deck of the ship, slewing the whole thing sideways, just as the cameras caught up.

There is nothing more instinctual to a human being than flinching away from danger, that fact is especially true for someone like Malina. All she could see was a whirlwind of red rushing toward her, breaking the plank in its wake, and aura exploded outward. A vibrant light red shimmering of light shot out of her in every direction, stretching out across the boat and shattering the deck, sending chunks and splints of wood shooting down and out into the water. It slammed into the streak of red in the split moment that it took her to process what had happened, to process that it wasn't Carmine, a shoulder struck her in the throat and she was being moved- carried- off of the ship.

He'd recovered? How-

The next thing she knew she'd been slammed into the entree way she'd come out of, the door now closed and dented. She'd... did she already lose? She looked up at the man who had taken her out of the arena so easily. An expressionless, flat helmet stared back. Murderer.

The word tugged at something in the back of her mind but she could not afford to dwell on that now. The Atlesian knights stationed by her door moved to paint their weapons at the man and they taken apart with barely a split second between them.

Shit.

Fuck.

Crisis management. Her eyes flicked to the stands, to the people, they were top priority. Her mind flooded back with images of Carmine, of what she could become. There had been times when she'd had to manage that, to deal in the worst sort of circumstances against someone she cared more for than her own family. There was only delaying there, carefully planned movements to try and get her to waste her energy and tire her out. She'd to avoid using dust and her semblance then but now-

Her hand shot into her pouch, fingers running along raised symbols on corks until she found what she was looking for. She popped the cap open and let the dust be absorbed into her aura, top charge it.

She brought her weapon arm up, flicking a switch and transforming it into its spear form to strike and Janus at the same time as Manticore shot around in a jab from the opposite side, a pincer strike. He'd have to move back, forward, or up and with that in mind she unleashed her semblance once more. Carefully portioned and segmented spikes of aura shot out from her in a vertical line from floor to straight above her, each a foot wide at their base and each charged with electricity.

Her speed, her response time, was staggeringly impressive. Being able to draw multiple weapons, to charge and deploy her semblance, to take in and plan an attack, all in the mere moments it took for Janus to tear through the Knights? Nothing less than the impossible being done. He'd have given pause on any other day.

But not today. Her attacks were intelligent, counting on his direct assault to continue. She wanted him to engage her on her terms.

The Mercenary wasn't about to let that happen.

He stopped, just shy of her blows, of the Aura Spines. The sudden arrest of momentum wouldn't have been possible without his Semblance. A heavy blast brought his speed to an immediate zero. His follow up, a split second later, was a massive, constant blast towards the woman. An onrushing vortex of wind. The suction picked up the Knight debris, hurling their pieces at her, and the front of the pressure wave ripped the doors behind her form their hinges, sending them spinning into the facility beneath the stands. His statistics on screen flickered, going dead as the tracking equipment began to fail from the damage to the arena.

Malina’s eyes tracked her opponent, almost losing him as he came to an extremely sudden stop just shy of the spear. Almost no time passed between the stop and the sudden rushing vortex, a wind tunnel. In a reflex, her mind tugged at the shape of a spear again, deformed it and pulled its bottom curve down to the floor and flared the rest of the edges. Its shape wasn’t aerodynamic, it would move slower in normal conditions, in here? With wind rushing against her? There was a chance it wouldn’t move at all. This was less of a spear and more of a shield, though, and impact wasn’t what she wanted.

The bot shot forward and the point of the shield shape penetrated through its metal skin, breaking through its circuitry. As it moved through the shield, it expanded and exploded outward, parts of it slamming into the walls around her. The wind still blew, still blew hard and she felt herself be pushed backward, missing getting slammed into the doors again by a split second as their broke from their hinges and flew back into the entrance hallway. Still, the shield had kept her from being blown off her feet.

The hallway was good, the hallways was where she wanted to be. Problem was, Janus wasn’t stupid. He had years of experience on her and specialist training on top of that. That said, looking at him now made it pretty clear he was not on his A-game. Mentally compromised? Probably. Atlas, boat, sinking, yeah that’s a volatile combination. Good.

Malina stood up, Manticore poised behind her with pins ready to be fired and her staff now expanded to its full length and planted firmly against the cold metal floor, her left hand clenched tightly into a fist and away from her satchel’s open flap. “I can’t believe they’d let a murderer-"

Spear tip dug deep into her aura and she suppressed a pained groan as the shards of glass showered down on her face from the shattered light, plunging their little section of hallway into dimness. Fuck him for not listening. Fuck him for doing this shit.

Manticore shot out from behind her and wrapped itself tight around the shaft of his weapon lifting the weight up from her shoulder before it drove her down. In a fluid movement she shifted her footing and braced, pulling the spear past and behind her. She took the moment where her opponent was off-balance to place a flat palm against the back of his armor and pushed out with her semblance.

Rule one of dealing with Carmine was to create distance between her and anyone who wasn't equipped to fight her. With her, that meant running away and getting her to chase you. Here, where energy couldn't be absorbed and used against you, it meant pushing every inch. Her semblance shaped itself into three rings nested inside one another with the largest the size of a basketball and the smallest the size of a baseball. The exploded out staggered, the largest ring slammed into Janus' back and pushed him away, the second ring exploded against him a split second after, followed by the smallest. The combined effect meant sending him a distance down the hallway greater than just a single concussive burst.

He used his semblance to right himself before crashing into the ground but she was already sprinting toward him down the hallway, her weapon transformed into spear mode, ready to meet his own, and manticore extended out to her open side to protect from attacks.